


ring a bell, falling down

by heyheyhey



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Gen, Gen Work, Mental Health Issues, OMORI Spoilers, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29877864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyheyhey/pseuds/heyheyhey
Summary: Her English teacher, in a stroke of brilliance, decides to pair Aubrey and Basil together for literature circles. As a way for them to 'reconcile' with each other, or some bullshit like that. Aubrey feels sick. She looks at Basil's hesitant expression, and she knows that she will never not hate him.Or, Aubrey comes to terms with... everything, post-game. Even if she stumbles in the process.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	ring a bell, falling down

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i haven't published fanfic since 2012 LOL! 
> 
> i loved omori so much. i love aubrey so much. she deserves a nice happy life but i also think she would have issues post-canon and want to explore that a little.
> 
> content warnings will be in the beginning notes each chapter + i'll add tags as we go
> 
> ch1 cw: alcohol abuse + child neglect, anger issues, depression, dissociation, emetophobia (the feeling of being sick), mention of psychiatric hospitalisation

Aubrey slips back into her house, closing the door quietly. Or, she tries to, but the door slams louder than she'd like. She barely contains a frustrated curse. At least her mom didn't say anything. The sharp smell of garbage and old beer bottles is familiar. It makes her gag. She wishes she could turn off her nose and eyes whenever she's downstairs.

Judging by the light of the sunset, and the show on the TV, her mom's already far gone. It won't matter how quiet Aubrey is, even if she's learnt being unheard is better for both of them.

"I'm home," she half mumbles, breezing past the empty kitchen to head to her room. Her mom stares blankly at the screen. 

The woman's hand is wrapped loosely around a half full beer bottle. If the grip was any looser, it would fall onto the ground and add another stain that would never come out. An ugly feeling twists at Aubrey's stomach, like it always does when she sees her mom. Is she less interesting than some stupid fucking TV and beer? 

She swallows her anger and pride and continues to her room.

The room is hot, like it always is in the summer. Aubrey hates living in this attic. She hates a lot of things about her house. The window's open, letting in cool air and mosquitoes since it doesn't have a screen. 

When she was younger, she'd bumped into it when she'd ran into her room. She doesn't remember why, or how. Maybe Kel had teased her about something. Maybe her dad told her to leave, when her parents were arguing about one of mom's episodes. It's not all that important. All that matters now is that she doesn't have a screen, and she wakes up covered with mosquito bites since she can't close the window during the summer.

Aubrey hangs her jacket on the back of the chair, the sweat on the small of her back cooling uncomfortably. Whatever. She takes off her socks and shoes, too, stuffing the shoes by the door so she'll remember to grab them in the morning.

Mama stares at her with her little rabbit eyes, nose twitching. When she leans down to pick her up, Mama nudges into her hands eagerly. Kim jokes that she spoils Mama, but Aubrey can't help it. Without the bunny as an incentive, it's harder to take care of herself. Back when Mari first died, before the gang was as close as it is now, she'd needed _something_ to distract her. In hindsight, choosing a living creature to take care of wasn't that smart. But she loved Mama, with all her heart, anyways.

She settles on her bed with her baby snuggled close, and lets the tears that have been brewing all day fall. She _hates_ how useless she feels. How angry she thinks she should be. It's hard to tell how angry she actually is about every little thing, when she's spent what feels like her whole life angry.

Ugh. She buries her face into Mama's fur to get rid of the tears. Tears make her feel itchy, but she can't help it. She cries when she's angry, and she has a short fuse. Her temper's a joke with the hooligans. Sometimes, they have competitions to see who can get her riled up the most about little things. She finds she doesn't mind, that them being comfortable enough to tease her is good. Things like those almost replace the hazy memories from when she was a kid.

It feels like she's never going to move past Mari.

Life's such a joke. Sunny comes out of his house, after years of abandoning everyone. He drags everyone around. They wake up to the sound of Basil screaming, to Sunny on the ground barely twitching and covered with blood. Sunny comes into Basil's room and says things she wishes she'd never heard.

"I have to tell you something." The words choke out, and Aubrey laughs. It's so hard to breathe. The tears and the laughter hurt so bad. Her chest is tight, and she feels hysterical. She feels hurt. A deep kind of pain that she's been ignoring for years. The kind that isn't going to ever go away, it seems. At least she doesn't feel angry, for fleeting seconds.

What a fucking joke! Sunny was lucky he'd never have to see her again. She doesn't even know what she'll do if she ever sees him again.

In the end, she doesn't even have to come up with a plan for what she'll do to him. She decides to stay at home, as much as she can, until she knows for certain that he's moved away. She stands outside his old house, and tries not to tremble at the sight of it being empty.

Life goes back to normal. Sunny's moving date had already came and went. Aubrey doesn't find out where he moved, his new houseline, or when exactly he left. She doesn't care. She ignores Kel and Hero, until Hero's going back to university and she can breathe freely. At least Basil has the decency to hide away for the rest of summer. 

The hooligans know something's wrong. Her friends all try to help cheer her up, but nothing helps. She lost something, that day in the hospital, and she'll never get it back. Her words get shorter. She's so tired of being angry that she just stops feeling as best as she can.

Very soon, her distance works. Aubrey leaves her house one day and sees Angel and The Maverick and Charlie all together at the park. Nothing out of the ordinary, they don't have to hang out together every single day. It's only when Kim and Vance arrive that she realises she wasn't invited to whatever they're doing. Aubrey doesn't come any closer, and they all leave the park to go somewhere else. Has she been left behind? She doesn't really have the energy to care. 

Summer drags on, blisteringly hot. She doesn't do much, other than sitting in the forest when it's too unbearable to hide away in the attic.

All too soon, she's going back to school. It's so weird. She thinks about Sunny, for a second, and how he's not going to graduate with them. It makes her so mad she wants to puke. She doesn't, of course, but the thought scares her enough that she stifles any thoughts about Sunny. 

It hurts to think about the hooligans. They're all obviously doing fine without her. Aubrey's stubborn enough that she won't apologise. Instead, she thinks about her old ex friends.

Kel's his usual self. School is good for him. He's never been shy, and it's obvious that he's the kind of person who needs a bunch of friends. Kel's the only person she really feels bad about being an asshole to. Despite how bad their personalities clash, he's the most genuine person she's ever met. Not that she'd ever tell him. His ego doesn't need that kind of boost.

Basil's out of whatever hole he was hiding himself in. She doesn't want to see him. He approaches, just once, when partners in their shared English class have all been filled up, and she punches him straight in the nose. 

The trip to the principal is worth it. The suspension even more so. What kid doesn't want to skip school? Especially when they get out of doing an assignment with someone they hate. It's not like mom's going to notice that school phoned. Aubrey goes home early, suspension already started, and deletes the school's recorded message on their phone before mom comes back from work. Easy. Her mom won't find out. Not that she would've even cared in the first place.

Aubrey ignores any stirrings of guilt. The pure fear in Basil's eyes, the way he hadn't moved out of the way. The way he covered his head with his forearms, breaking down into panicked sobs and curling in on himself. She didn't pay that much attention. The teacher had already been screaming at her by that point.

In the end, it doesn't take long for Kel to find out. He knocks at her front door, and her mother screams up to the attic at her. The mix of anger and _happiness_ , of all things, makes her sick. She rips the door open, shoving past Kel so they're both outside.

"What." She makes sure that her voice is clipped. There's no need for her to force disinterest. She literally couldn't care any less.

"Why'd you punch Basil, Aubrey?" Kel asks. It's such a stupid question. He's acting like he wasn't right there, listening to Sunny confess all his sins. Like he doesn't hate that they really couldn't have done anything to save Mari. All of a sudden, she wants to punch Kel, too. She won't, because Kel's the only one who ever tries.

Aubrey sighs, crossing her arms against her chest. She asks, "Are you fucking dumb?" 

Which. While she does like Kel, she can't help but hate him. Why is he so unaffected by everything? Why is he never angry? She's jealous. She hates him so much.

Kel just blinks, before grinning good naturedly. "Of course I am! You've known that for years." But he must sense her anger, because his face turns to that dumb serious expression. "Seriously, though, you can't keep bullying Basil. My mom said he was put into a psych ward or something? I don't know what it's called. But we should be nicer to him!"

"A ps… God. I don't care, Kel." She doesn't. She doesn't think about Basil being more alone than ever. "Maybe you should worry about yourself. Why the hell do you care about Basil?"

Aubrey spits his name out like it's poison. Basil makes her feel sick.

"What? We're all friends, aren't we?" Kel asks, but it feels like she's too far away to hear what he's saying. Her eyes stare at him and don't register anything. It's almost relieving that she can't hear the bullshit friend spiel he's telling her. Should she be worried?

She blinks, and Kel's watching her with undisguised concern in his eyes. Her skin prickles uncomfortably. 

"Is everything… okay, Aubrey?" Kel asks, eyes flicking towards the door. Right. Her mom had screamed in front of him. They're surrounded by trash bags. He'd come into her house with the others, the day before Sunny and Basil got into their fight. The memory is enough to snap her head out of whatever fog it got into. It makes her cheeks burn with humiliation.

"Everything's fine. You should worry about your precious little Basil," Aubrey gestures with her hands, sarcastic, "before you worry about me. Keep your nose out of my business, asshole."

She almost regrets coming outside to speak. It would be easier to slam the door shut in his face if she was already inside. Still, she walks stiffly to the house, and closes the door without a second glance. Her mom doesn't look up from the TV. It's almost impressive how quickly the lump can get distracted by cheap softcore porn and alcohol. No pesky neighbourhood boys are getting between her and her stupid routine. For a second, Aubrey wants to scream at her. She wants her mom to look at her, and see where everything went wrong and fix it. Not that her mom can even fix things.

Aubrey stomps past to her room, without any sound coming from her mom.

She's not going to apologise to Kel. She's not going to apologise to the hooligans. She's definitely not going to apologise to Basil, ever. She'll break his nose the next time they speak.

But life's laughing at her. Her English teacher, in a stroke of brilliance, decides to pair Aubrey and Basil together for literature circles. As a way for them to 'reconcile' with each other, or some bullshit like that. It's obvious that Basil doesn't want to do this. His hands tremble on the book cover when she glares at him from across their pushed together desks. She wants to reach out, and do… something. She doesn't know.

The pairing is assigned with the reminder that assaulting Basil again will lead to her being expelled. Aubrey feels sick. She looks at Basil's hesitant expression, and she knows that she will never not hate him.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! i hope that this is ok. i really didn't want to go through it and edit it because it's like 3:30am
> 
> originally i wanted this to be a one-shot but halfway through typing i realised it would have to be chapters
> 
> next chapter will hopefully be a little tiny bit less heavy pleas.e... i'm begging myself


End file.
